Kowloon, a city dating back to the 19th century that is located in Hong Kong, was a place that was part of the territories of the British colony and was later claimed by China in World War II. The enigmatic place became the subject of historical compilations, among them, the photographic narratives of Ian Lambot and Greg Girad, captured in their work “City Of Darkness” and thanks to their photojournalistic work, the memory of a true Gothic city was preserved.
Due to sociopolitical issues, no government intervened in its development, causing it to self-regulate among the inhabitants; most of them low-income immigrants in search of an affordable place to live, this is also reported in the research of Sofia Quiroga F., researcher at the Universities of “Xi’an Jiaotong” and “Liverpool University”.
Taken as if from a comic book story, it became a city without laws, an indescribable place that once had a population of up to fifty thousand people living in just one hectare.
Due to the conditions in which the place was born, without laws or authority, a kind of mini society was born, where calm and violence existed at the same time.
Mezzanines initially built of wood and stone, as more people needed a place to live, more and more rooms were built, one on top of the other, turning the place into a kind of wall, eventually having buildings in blocks with more than 14 stories high.
The enigmatic place that is extinct today once housed 35 thousand people, where dentists, families and even drug sellers coexisted. Due to the lack of regulation, they did not have basic services and those who did obtain them did so illegally.
A true city straight out of fiction, where the highest parts served to provide sun to its inhabitants, occupied by children who came up to play, while the darker floors were brothels or places full of people addicted to different drugs.
However, as Girad and Labot’s descriptions narrate, not having basic services or infrastructure made people need each other, generating community among its inhabitants. Some of the testimonies collected by researchers speak of the union and mutual help that existed.
On the other hand, this same lack of authority caused crime spots to be created where brothels, prostitution and drug sales were born. Incredible the way in which union and empathy could coexist, while perversions and darkness were also present.
But as everything that goes up must come down, after several crises, including a fire and many other risky situations, the authority looked to Kowloon to put an end to its story.
Thus, in the 1980s the government began to negotiate with its inhabitants to move them to various homes or compensate them in case of demolition; Finally in 1993 the city was demolished.
Today 31 years have passed in which Kowloon ceased to exist, it remains in the memory of those who were able to know it and in a chapter of the history of humanity. A bizarre place where children played, while at its feet there was a restaurant, a hairdresser, a dentist or a brothel.
The Gothic city of the real world, Kowloon, shows us the darkest faces that exist in human beings and reminds us that society is an entity where despite the little light, there is always a ray of sunshine that brings hope in the moments more difficult.
2024-06-23 04:20:08
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